Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for the biennial floorball World Championships! In tonight's final game, it will be two very familiar countries competing against each other once again.

So, it has come to this. Finland. Sweden. Two countries with a long history and who will provide a good match-up against each other in ANY sport. It's a heated rivalry in floorball, as the countries have faced each other 6 times in the finals, starting with the very first floorball World Championship in 1996, which ended in a Swedish 5-0 victory on their home turf. In fact, Sweden was the undefeated king of the tournament for a very long time, including the 2006 games when they dealt Finland a heartbreaking, 7-6 overtime loss in the finals. However, come 2008 and the Finnish squad was playing with a bit between its teeth. It was a hard-fought struggle, it was full of surprises, pretty goals and gritty plays, and once again it went to overtime, but this time it was Finland dealing Sweden their first loss... 7-6, once again. It was an emotional victory to Finland, who had tried to beat Sweden for the last 10 years in vain. The momentum carried over to the home games in 2010, where the Finns were able to deal with the Swedish threat more comfortably, winning 6-2 and their second World Championship on the row.

Will the Finnish squad prove to be unbeatable and handle the Swedes their third loss in the row, or is it time for Sweden's revenge?

Sweden will be looking at their first real challenge in the tournament, after getting a "free pass" to the finals by beating Slovakia in the quarter-finals 18-1 and then demolishing the hopes of Germany, who played a very good tournament but were no match to the Scandinavians and ended up 0-13 in the semi-finals.

Finland, on the the other hand, has already played two tough games. First, they were already pitted against #4 seed Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, but the Bohemian rhapsody ended up 4-1 for the Finns. However, in the semi-finals, Finland were facing a tough challenge: Switzerland. Playing a really good tournament and in front of their home crowd, there was nothing cheesy about the Swiss squad as they were ready to face the defending world champions. It was a hard-fought struggle, but it ended in the overtime when Finland's MVP Juha Kivilehto was able to defeat Switzerland's MVP, Daniel Streit and thus lead Finland to the finals.

#8 Juha Kivilehto. Scored the game-winner against Switzerland. A defender who plays with a competitive edge and a big heart. Not afraid to get physical.
#50 Tero Tiitu. Has one of the most lethal shots in the world, and is not afraid to use it. Great scorer with good hands. He's a constant threat on the floor.

#17 Rasmus Enström. He's scored 14 goals and he's the leading goal scorer in the tournament. While his numbers have been helped by Sweden's typical luck in getting easy opponents, he is still a force to be reckoned.
#11 Martin Östholm. Leading scorer among the Swedish D, he has a boomer of a shot and is not afraid to join the attack.

These would've all been in the opening post but I went over the image limit, so I had to split them. Sorry about that.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:31 AM

Time for the opening face-off. Finland starts with Toivoniemi on net, as expected.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:32 AM

Kim Nilsson scores after 0:58 in the 1st.

Finland 0-1 Sweden.

TZM

12-09-2012 09:34 AM

Wow.. What a beauty by Team Sweden.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:35 AM

Dangerous rebound for Finland but hits the post.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:36 AM

Stenberg hits the net but NO GOAL as it was after the whistle.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:37 AM

Toivoniemi saves the bacon.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:39 AM

Tiitu gets pushed against the boards and bizarrely, the referee decides it was his fault.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:43 AM

Kohonen has an excellent opportunity and a half-breakaway but couldn't finish it and ends up on the Swedish net himself.

rafterman

12-09-2012 09:50 AM

Look what the absence of the NHL has done to me - watching Floorball on YouTube while having Man U v. Man City on the big screen. What have I become ?? :laugh:

Other than the 1990's NBA arena music, this floorball isn't too bad.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:51 AM

Esa Jussila with an excellent opportunity but denied by Åman.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:53 AM

By the way, Tero Tiitu has 99 goals on Finnish NT and is looking for his 100th tonight.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rafterman
(Post 56389665)

Look what the absence of the NHL has done to me - watching Floorball on YouTube while having Man U v. Man City on the big screen. What have I become ?? :laugh:

Other than the 1990's NBA arena music, this floorball isn't too bad.

Ouch, soccer. Switch floorball to big screen :sarcasm:

Some basic rules:

-No offside
-No icing
-No hitting
- 3x20 minute periods with a small "power break" around halfway each period
- Line changes not allowed if the opposition has the ball on your side of the rink.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:56 AM

Malmström shoots from nearly half-rink but it was a hard shot and he scores.

0-2.

Nothing's over yet though. Finland was 2 goals down in the 3rd yesterday, remember?

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:58 AM

Samuelsson hits the post twice in 20 seconds.

Puhis

12-09-2012 09:59 AM

Malmström scores again with Toivoniemi down.

0-3. We need some better movement.

rafterman

12-09-2012 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxwell Goldshadow
(Post 56389717)

- Line changes not allowed if the opposition has the ball on your side of the rink.

I like the idea of this rule, but at least in this game it doesn't seem that there's enough prolonged offensive possession to make it matter.

rafterman

12-09-2012 10:03 AM

3-0, so when does Sweden start trapping ? :sarcasm:

Puhis

12-09-2012 10:04 AM

1st over.

Finland 0-3 Sweden

Basic summary of the 1st: Finland has the ball most of the time, but can't get any good opportunities. Sweden scores from counter-attacks.

Finland needs to bring their D forward more. Also, their strategy of stationary, accurate passes from D to wing and back to D doesn't really seem to work. It didn't work yesterday and it doesn't work today. We can't get the pass to the slot and have to shoot from D where the shot is always blocked or misses.

W75

12-09-2012 10:08 AM

This may get ugly. Swedes are good but Finland must play better than that.

W75

12-09-2012 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rafterman
(Post 56389665)

Look what the absence of the NHL has done to me - watching Floorball on YouTube while having Man U v. Man City on the big screen. What have I become ?? :laugh: